Gateway FPD2485W: 24" LCD Beauty or Beast?
by Jarred Walton on February 22, 2007 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Closing Thoughts
The Gateway FPD2485W is one of the more recent LCDs on the market, and it performs very well. Is it the best option currently available? We haven't tested a lot of other displays, so we can't say for certain, but it appears to be competitive with most other options in the same category.
For many users looking at purchasing a new display, one of the overriding factors is going to be price. That's what helped turn Dell into one of the largest display providers in the world, as given the choice between a 24" Dell LCD or a more expensive but higher-quality 20"-21" LCD from someone else, quite a few people have been more than happy to stick with Dell. The fact that Dell's LCDs are actually very good also helped.
Gateway seems to have a good understanding of the market - and well they should considering that they compete in other markets against Dell - and they have produced a product that takes a very similar approach. The FPD2485W isn't a perfect LCD, but it performs very well overall and it is available at a very attractive price. Currently, the FPD2485W is listed for $680 on the Gateway web site, while the regular price of the Dell 2407WFP is $750. Dell routinely runs sales, however, and the 2407WFP is available for $675 right now. You basically end up with two very similar monitors that cost about the same amount, although the Dell comes with a three-year warranty included making it a slightly better deal.
The small difference in price probably isn't enough to sway most people one way or the other, so it's going to come down to performance, features, and any other extras. The bottom line for the consumer is that we're getting more competition in the large LCD market from a major manufacturer, and as the AMD/Intel price wars have shown us, competition is good for the consumer. Two years ago, 24" LCDs cost nearly twice what they do now, and they have now moved from the ultra high-end price range into a more palatable high-end classification. If you're still running a CRT and are finally thinking about upgrading to an LCD, most of the 24" models will impress and the Gateway FPD2485W is one of those you should keep on your short list of options.
About the only real problem we encountered during testing is the inability of the Gateway FPD2485W to reproduce a smooth gradient scale. Banding is very apparent in such cases, and while this won't really affect gaming or to a lesser extent video content, some users and especially graphics artists are likely to be disappointed. We could also hope for a more streamlined OSD interface, but the color gradients are a far bigger concern. Overall color accuracy is good, with a relatively low Delta E score, but it seems that the Faroudja signal processor may not actually be doing as well as we would like. The image processor seems the more likely culprit, as in other areas the panel appears to be the same as that used on Dell's 2407WFP.
One final area that we haven't really talked about is how opinions differ by individuals. Some people are blessed with much better eyesight, and what we find more than acceptable might disappoint. If possible, we always recommend that you try out displays in person, and that is particularly important if you are one of the more discerning viewers of the world. Pixel response times for example are now fast enough that most people don't notice the slight blurring that is still present on nearly all LCDs, but there are individuals out there that have serious issues with pixel smearing. If you're one of those, the new Gateway LCD doesn't appear to be any better or worse in that area than earlier Dell models, so it is unlikely to change your mind in that respect.
As we stated at the outset, it has been a long time since we last performed any display reviews at AnandTech. Our goal is to rectify the situation, and we hope to have numerous display reviews over the coming months. Initially, we're going to be focusing on covering some of the more popular products that are already on the market, as they will help to establish a baseline performance metric. We're also looking for feedback from our readers, so if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to drop us a line.
The Gateway FPD2485W is one of the more recent LCDs on the market, and it performs very well. Is it the best option currently available? We haven't tested a lot of other displays, so we can't say for certain, but it appears to be competitive with most other options in the same category.
For many users looking at purchasing a new display, one of the overriding factors is going to be price. That's what helped turn Dell into one of the largest display providers in the world, as given the choice between a 24" Dell LCD or a more expensive but higher-quality 20"-21" LCD from someone else, quite a few people have been more than happy to stick with Dell. The fact that Dell's LCDs are actually very good also helped.
Gateway seems to have a good understanding of the market - and well they should considering that they compete in other markets against Dell - and they have produced a product that takes a very similar approach. The FPD2485W isn't a perfect LCD, but it performs very well overall and it is available at a very attractive price. Currently, the FPD2485W is listed for $680 on the Gateway web site, while the regular price of the Dell 2407WFP is $750. Dell routinely runs sales, however, and the 2407WFP is available for $675 right now. You basically end up with two very similar monitors that cost about the same amount, although the Dell comes with a three-year warranty included making it a slightly better deal.
The small difference in price probably isn't enough to sway most people one way or the other, so it's going to come down to performance, features, and any other extras. The bottom line for the consumer is that we're getting more competition in the large LCD market from a major manufacturer, and as the AMD/Intel price wars have shown us, competition is good for the consumer. Two years ago, 24" LCDs cost nearly twice what they do now, and they have now moved from the ultra high-end price range into a more palatable high-end classification. If you're still running a CRT and are finally thinking about upgrading to an LCD, most of the 24" models will impress and the Gateway FPD2485W is one of those you should keep on your short list of options.
About the only real problem we encountered during testing is the inability of the Gateway FPD2485W to reproduce a smooth gradient scale. Banding is very apparent in such cases, and while this won't really affect gaming or to a lesser extent video content, some users and especially graphics artists are likely to be disappointed. We could also hope for a more streamlined OSD interface, but the color gradients are a far bigger concern. Overall color accuracy is good, with a relatively low Delta E score, but it seems that the Faroudja signal processor may not actually be doing as well as we would like. The image processor seems the more likely culprit, as in other areas the panel appears to be the same as that used on Dell's 2407WFP.
One final area that we haven't really talked about is how opinions differ by individuals. Some people are blessed with much better eyesight, and what we find more than acceptable might disappoint. If possible, we always recommend that you try out displays in person, and that is particularly important if you are one of the more discerning viewers of the world. Pixel response times for example are now fast enough that most people don't notice the slight blurring that is still present on nearly all LCDs, but there are individuals out there that have serious issues with pixel smearing. If you're one of those, the new Gateway LCD doesn't appear to be any better or worse in that area than earlier Dell models, so it is unlikely to change your mind in that respect.
As we stated at the outset, it has been a long time since we last performed any display reviews at AnandTech. Our goal is to rectify the situation, and we hope to have numerous display reviews over the coming months. Initially, we're going to be focusing on covering some of the more popular products that are already on the market, as they will help to establish a baseline performance metric. We're also looking for feedback from our readers, so if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to drop us a line.
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Justin Case - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
As you say, the problem isn't so much the LCDs themselves (with reaction times of 10ms and below, they can do 100 fps), it's the DVI interface. Not because it's digital, just because it's (relatively) slow.The "reaction time" of a CRT isn't zero (unlike what some LCD vendors and tons of clueless retailers claim); in fact, a white-to-black transition takes longer on CRTs than it does on most LCDs. So all this obsession with reaction times ends up hurting consumers, that treat that number as a magical definition of a panel's quality, and completely ignore other (far more relevant) aspects, such as the actual number of displayable colors (without dithering or flipping), color variation with viewing angle, luminance uniformity, etc.
To quote an engineer working for a major (high-end) LCD manufacturer: LCDs are still 2-3 years away from catching up with top CRTs in terms of color reproduction. But when 90% of people can't even tell the difference between a 6-bit panel and an 8-bit one, I wonder what incentive the manufacturers have to improve that...
yyrkoon - Friday, February 23, 2007 - link
If we're talking about ghosting / screen lag, I use a 8ms 19" widescreen LCD, and see none. The only real problem I have, is when I'm playing a graphics intensive game, at the monitors native resolution, and my video card ( 7600GT) can not keep up.This is not to say, that some 'lag' does not exist, but in my case, it is not percievable.
Justin Case - Friday, February 23, 2007 - link
Lag is not the same as ghosting. Lag refers to the fact that the frame you are seeing on screen is not the last frame your graphics card rendered. Some flat panels display the image with a delay of 1 or even 2 frames. This is fine for LCD TV sets (as long as the audio is also delayed, by the same amount), but in interactive applications like games it can be a killer.yyrkoon - Friday, February 23, 2007 - link
As I said above, I see none, and seriously, I play Oblivion, F.E.A.R., not to mention a multitude of other games ;)StevenG - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
The game I play doesn't support 1280x960 so I play at 1280x1024. Sure there's some distortion, but it doesn't bother me. And the higher res looks much better than 1024x768 (the next lowest supported resolution in the game).Aquila76 - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
This is by far one of the worst LCD's for color accuracy, IMO. I bought one at Best Buy a couple weeks ago, and no matter what settings I used, gradients did not look fully smooth. It is what is refered to as a 'gradation' not a banding.Check here for more info: http://lcdresource.com/index.php?option=com_conten...">Gradation v. Banding
Check here for a test: http://lcdresource.com/index.php?option=com_conten...">Gradient Downloads
What's really sad is that the HP L1706 I use at work (came bundled with the PC) does the gradients flawlessly. A $150 display outperforms this $650 one. I noticed this in games and movies a lot, especially when in a dark place, looking at the sky, etc. I ended up returning mine and am waiting for the NEC 24WMGX3 to come out. I loved the size/resolution for my desktop workspace, but the rest was too much for me to stand.
demani - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
I wish I had seen this review and comments before I bought mine- The gradient thing is horrible. I am trying to see if I can return mine it is so bad. I haven't seen a panel have that much of an issue with gradients in years-and it ruins what would otherwise be a great panel.If only the Dell could dimmed to regular brightness...
Bastiches.
JarredWalton - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
Yikes! Glad someone pointed this out. Some things slip through the cracks when you're trying to come up with a good set of display evaluation tools. I had intended to check color gradients but forgot to actually do it. Ummmm... wow. The Gateway FPD2485W is definitely inferior to competing LCDs in this respect. I will try to get a good picture of the result, but have been unable to do so at present. Regardless, there is definitely a lot of banding visible, something that I didn't see at all in a quick test of a Dell 2407WFP. My 2405FPW shows a slight amount of banding, but not as much as the Gateway.To be honest, this isn't something that was really a problem for me during actual use, but that's likely because I don't do a whole lot of gradient work on a day to day basis. I have updated the text accordingly on pages 8 and 9. Thanks, and I will definitely remember to run this sort of test future display reviews!
mcfraggel - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
Input lag is a concern for 24" displays and larger. Some displays have more than 50ms delay. Google for it and you'll find quite a lot about it. Shouldn't this be adressed in this review somewhere?Aquila76 - Thursday, February 22, 2007 - link
I didn't notice any input lag. I had my old CRT side by side for a bit to test this and didn't perceive any difference. Note my post below for the deal killer, though.